^24b “May Your burning anger overtake them … ^28a “May they be blotted out of the book of life.”

Popular Christianity tends to shy away from passages like Psalm 69, where God is requested to hand down judgment and condemnation on unbelievers: “May Your burning anger overtake them” (vs. 24b), “May they be blotted out of the book of life” (vs. 28a). What do we make of that?

Regrettably, unbalanced and so-called “fire and brimstone” preaching has often left modern believers unable to understand or appreciate biblical truth that speaks of God’s anger. We tend to disassociate from historical figures like the 18th-century American theologian Jonathon Edwards, who preached the well-known sermon, “Sinners in the hands of an angry God.” We cringe at evangelism that speaks of damnation and hell. And we feel like crawling in a hole at any recitation of the 14th-century epic description of hell in Dante’s “Inferno,” with its outlandish nine concentric circles or levels of hell presented as a journey through the place of judgment.

To be sure, scaring people into salvation may scare them away from Christ or turn them into cynics about the Christian faith, when we really want them to see the love of God through Jesus Christ. However, as true, Bible-based Christians, we must accept that the Bible teaches us that God can indeed be severely angry at sinners and that Bible-believing Christians must order our thoughts to include this truth. Jesus Himself frequently spoke of hell and judgment, and He didn’t mince words or downplay this truth. There is coming a time when God’s love for the whole world (John 3:16) will give way to His holy righteousness and condemn those who go to the grave rejecting the love of God in Christ.

Enter Psalm 69, a sobering perspective by David, whom God described as a man after His heart. Lest we think this is an OT perspective only, the apostle Paul affirmed this assessment of David in the NT, quoting from 1 Samuel 13:14: “I [God] have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after My heart, who will do all My will” (Acts 13:22). We cannot, therefore, assign this psalm to a pre-Christian concept of a sub-Christlike people in the OT.

So what do we make of Psalm 69? David’s words give us a legitimate framework for understanding how godly people can talk to God about ungodly people while in God’s presence. In short, there will be complete vindication for the righteous facing the actions of evil people in the world! We are justified in asking God for justice, even if that justice involves the destruction of wicked people. Knowing God as a just God means we want what He wants!

The context for this psalm is David’s request to be rescued from those threatening his life. His human desire for self-preservation may have initiated David’s prayer, but something deeper is at play here. He is concerned with God’s character as being perfectly righteous. In the first four verses, he expresses himself emotionally and figuratively: “I have sunk in the deep mire, and there is no foothold … I am weary with my crying….” Why does he feel this way? Because of “those who hate me without a cause … who would destroy me …!” Lest anyone think, “Who is David to conclude that he himself is above sinning,” he acknowledges in verse five, “O God, it is You who knows my folly, and my wrongs are not hidden from You.” A hypocrite he is not! But he will not be manipulated or cowered into making an equivalence of all sinful deeds, as though “since we are all sinners, how can we speak so harshly of those who sin against us?” Their sin against him is grievous, and his own faults will not compel him to deny the gross injustice against him, nor hold him back from a legitimate complaint to God about how he is being treated.

 So David launches his defense of those who are righteous (which we understand includes himself), described as “those who wait for You” and “those who seek You” (vs. 6). They may not be perfect or sinless, but their hearts are toward God, unlike the hearts of those who are not. He knew what his son Solomon said later at the dedication of the temple in Jerusalem,

“When they [God’s people] sin against You (for there is no man who does not sin) … and repent … return to You with all their heart and with all their soul … forgive Your people who have sinned against You” (2 Chron. 6:36-39).

We recognize what James in the NT says, “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.” The difference, though, is that among sinners, those who turn back to God in repentance of their sin are considered righteous. Those who do not repent and continue willfully in their sinful ways are termed “the wicked.” As Christians, our righteousness is not based on keeping the Law, for we are all failures. But we now have the righteousness of Christ, not something we earned, but something defined by His grace that came through repenting and turning to Him in faith.

Lord, I thank you that I have escaped Your angry judgment against me for my sin. You will vindicate me in the face of abuse by those who do not respect that You are a righteous and holy God.